The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Adam Luca from Mother Iron Horse

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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

I guess, in a general sense, I create. Whether it be music, video or just art in any form. Some of my earliest memories are scrawling on paper with crayons. It’s always been a part of me. Now as an adult, I’m fortunate enough to make art with my best friends. That art has taken us all over the country and will take us all over the world before we’re done. Even in the darkest moments of life, art seems to flourish. As a child it started as a coping mechanism and has since blossomed into a compulsion.

Describe your first musical memory.

My first musical memory is watching my sister dance around to “Little Lies” by Fleetwood Mac when we were very young. I was maybe three or four years old and that song still holds a special place in my heart.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

My best musical memory would probably be my first hardcore show. I was around 12 years old and had grown up listening to those generic rock radio stations. A friend of mine had his older sister bring us to a show at The New World, which was a hardcore punk club in my hometown of Lynn, Ma. It was a true awakening for me. Whatever idea I had about rock music at the time was quickly smashed to pieces. I was at such a young impress age and these cats were going insane both on the stage and in the crowd. It was the coolest thing I had ever seen. I was hooked. The aggression, the do it yourself mantra, the brutal honesty and the unwritten rules that were learned the hard way. I was obsessed with it and still am today.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

Oh this happens constantly. We are approached with opportunities to play with these bigger bands and we’re honored by that. However, I will never share the stage with any band whose members have a history or domestic violence, sexual assault, bigotry or racism. I just flat out won’t do it. This has happened many times with bands who are considered to be massive. We’ve missed out on opportunities to grow quickly because of these beliefs and that’s totally fine with me. I’d rather grow at a slower pace than have a brand that I created be associated with anyone like that. I have and will always be outspoken about that. I believe in rehabilitation and people ability to change, of course. However, that doesn’t mean I’ll share the stage with that person or band.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Artistic progression often leads to a very different outcome than what was initiated. It’s always evolving. Always changing. I see a lot of people get upset when bands change their style of music, which I can somewhat understand. However, the art SHOULD progress. I never want to make the same record twice and I don’t think I’m alone in that mindset. It’s natural to evolve and art is not exempt from that.

How do you define success?

I don’t define success in a monetary sense, especially in music. We exist in a world where the musician is paid last and more often than not we’re paid by pennies on the dollar. So I like to measure success by how many lives we are able to touch. Whether it be through the music itself, the lyrical content, the live show or just meeting people on the road. We’ve been fortunate to make so many amazing friends all over the world through our music and I’m beyond blessed by that. People we’ve never met, in countries we’ve never been to are getting MIH tattoos, or putting out zines that spread the word about us, or play us on their radio shows. To me, that’s success. Money is great to keep things sustainable, but I’m always floored by the stories we hear about how our music has helped someone through a tough time. I’m honored to have helped someone through something.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

The way some people get a pass for their abhorrent behavior in the music industry. I’ve seen bands refuse to speak out about issues because it might hurt their fanbase or ability to play certain venues. I’ve seen members of massive bands prey on underage girls. They say that you should never meet your heroes and I firmly believe that’s true.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

I’d love to get more into film making. The music video for Old Man Satan was the first time I had ever directed anything. It was so much fun and was amazing to have my hands in every aspect of it from start to finish. I really hope we get to expand on this soon.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

To inspire thought. I believe that good art should make a person think. Regardless of what that thought may be. As long as it provokes something in the target then it’s doing it’s job.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

The sunrise (it’s 4am here). People being held accountable for their actions. A day where women have full body autonomy. A world wear skin color or sexual orientation doesn’t dictate a persons social status. I look forward to seeing my daughter grow up in a better world than the one I grew up in.

https://www.facebook.com/MotherIronHorse
https://www.instagram.com/mother_iron_horse/
https://motherironhorse.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/theripplemusic/
https://www.instagram.com/ripplemusic/
https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/
http://www.ripple-music.com/

Mother Iron Horse, Under the Blood Moon (2021)

Salem, Mass-based sludge metal four-piece Mother Iron Horse will head out on tour beginning July 20. They head out supporting their 2021 Ripple Music debut and second album overall, Under the Blood Moon (review here), which was offered as a part of a series curated by Rob “Blasko” Nicholson.

And this is going to sound kind of random, but the sound of that record is one I can’t help but associate with New England. And more specifically, New England in Fall. Weird, maybe — and I didn’t see Mother Iron Horse live until 2019 (review here), after I’d moved out of Massachusetts — but the only time I can remember getting such a strong, particularly New English, cool-air-smell-of-burning-leaves-seems-to-be-getting-dark-just-a-little-bit-faster-paper-bag-from-Newbury-Comics is from Cannae‘s Troubleshooting Death in 2000. I can’t believe I haven’t talked about this before — and in fact I have — but whatever reverb frequency that is, it just sounds like cold on skin to me. I’m not sure if that’s what Mother Iron Horse were going for or not.

Connecticut’s Bone Church will join Mother Iron Horse for the entirety of their upcoming run of shows, which hold a slot for the latter in Austin at RippleFest Texas as their centerpiece, and Snake Mountain Revival will join on after. Even later this summer, Mother Iron Horse will be out again, this time to Psycho Las Vegas, and they have a Boston show slated for Aug. 28, though whether or not anything’s set for between, I don’t know.

Either way, I didn’t want to mention it earlier because I feel like I’ve been talking about that weekend a lot, but I did just see Mother Iron Horse a few weeks ago at Desertfest New York and they were killer. So there.

Dates for the tour follow, as per social media:

MOTHER IRON HORSE SUMMER TOUR

Hitting the road this summer! Select dates with our brothers in @bone_church and @snakemountainrevival ! Catch us at @ripplefesttexas and @psycholasvegas

DATES
07.20 Lexington KY*
07.21 Huntsville AL*
07.23 San Antonio TX*
07.24 Austin TX RippleFest Texas*
07.25 New Orleans LA
07.27 Charlotte NC*^
07.28 Richmond VA*^
08.20 Las Vegas NV Psycho Las Vegas
08.26 Boston MA
* with Bone Church
^ with Snake Mountain Revival

https://www.facebook.com/MotherIronHorse
https://www.instagram.com/mother_iron_horse/
https://motherironhorse.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/theripplemusic/
https://www.instagram.com/ripplemusic/
https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/
http://www.ripple-music.com/

Mother Iron Horse, Under the Blood Moon (2021)

Somewhere just before I started this Quarterly Review, the contact form on this website was fixed. This, obviously, was a mistake. On my desktop that have come in over the last week and a day are more than enough releases to have continued the Fall 2021 QR for at least two more days, if not longer. That’s just not happening. The music’s been good, but I’ve had both of our family cars break down in the last two days, I’ve been fighting to get a bus to pick my kid up for school in the morning, and waking up at 4:30 to write only seems to result in nodding off while brushing my teeth. Not to mention, as The Patient Mrs. very gracefully doesn’t tell me during these times, I’m a total bitch when I do this. Again, she doesn’t say it. The message though is pretty clear.

So best to quit while I’m… already behind again…

Thanks for reading.

Quarterly Review #61-70:

Endless Boogie, Admonitions

Let’s not talk about how Paul Major has cool hair. Or how he’s well known in record-trader circles or whatever else. Let’s talk about Endless Boogie‘s largely-insurmountable 80-plus minutes of jams on Admonitions and how reliable the band have become when one seeks sleek-grooved expanses, not reliant on effects wash and synthesized swirl, but just the rawer guitar, bass, drums, periodic-but-don’t-go-expecting-them vocals. You put on Endless Boogie, you’re gonna get some groove. Pick a favorite between the sides-A-and-C-consuming 22-minute tracks “The Offender” and “Jim Tully” if you want, I’ll take both, and the minimal drone of “The Conversation” and “The Incompetent Villains of 1968” for a bonus. At 5:12 and with vocals, “Bad Call” is about as close as they come to a ‘single’ in the traditional sense — it’s the centerpiece of side B, with “Disposable Thumbs” before and the cool-built funk of “Counterfeiter” after — but if you’re looking for singles you’re missing the point here. The point is to put it on and go. So go, god damn it.

Endless Boogie on Bandcamp

No Quarter website

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Sula Bassana, Loop Station Drones

A collection of various pieces — aren’t we all? — by Dave “Sula Bassana” Schmidt (Electric Moon, Zone Six, etc.), Loop Station Drones may be aptly named in terms of the basic process of creation, but that hardly covers the scope of the release’s 78-minute span, whether that’s the meditative undercurrent in opener “Roadburn Haze,” slightly edited from Schmidt‘s Roadburn Redux appearance earlier in 2021, the 16-bit cosmic soundtracking of “Rolling in Outer Space” (I’d play the shit out whatever game that is on SNES), the moodier breadth of “Die Karawane der Unsterblichen” and “Wastelandgarden” or the motorik pulse of the 17-minute “Dopeshuttle.” Especially pivotal is the closing duo of “Stargate” (14:06) and “One Way” (6:04), which offer serenity and wistfulness, respectively, that bridge a rare emotionality for what according to its title is a simple ‘drone.’ Anytime Schmidt wants to turn this into an ongoing series, that’ll be fine.

Sula Bassana on Facebook

Sulatron Records webstore

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Redscale, The Old Colossus

Rock for rockers. Berlin four-piece Redscale roll out a scenario in which Clutch and Kyuss and Soundgarden and Truckfighters and probably six or seven other of your favorite heavy rock live acts got together and decided to put down a batch of kickass songs. That’s what’s up. The Old Colossus is the band’s fourth LP, first for Majestic Mountain, and if they spent their first two albums figuring out how to get shit done, well, they sound like it. Things get duly big-sounding on “Hard to Believe” and they go acoustic on “At the End” ahead of the closer “The Lathe of Heaven,” but basically what Redscale do here is identify the boxes needing ticking and then tick the crap out of them. They’re not reshaping the genre, but they’re definitely doing righteous work within it. The rockers will know the rock when they hear it. Everyone else can get bent.

Redscale on Facebook

Majestic Mountain Records webstore

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Seven Rivers of Fire, Hail Star of the Sea!

A solo-project of William Randles, also of Durban, South Africa’s Rise Up, Dead Man, the acoustic-led Seven Rivers of Fire brings a sense of outbound ritualism to drone-folk and organic psychedelia with this second self-released offering, Hail Star of the Sea!. I’m not sure if he’s handling all the instruments himself or not, but one is reminded of Om-split-era Six Organs of Admittance throughout the 20-minute “Crossing the Abyss / The Magician’s Journey,” and instrumental pieces like “I Saw Satan Fall Like Lightning” and “Ghost Dance / Sign of the Goddess” and “Ha-Sulam / Drawing Down the Moon” have a current of tension running alongside their largely-unplugged peacefulness. The 76-minute entirety of the outing is best enjoyed in the sun, outside, but whatever the context in which one might visit it in part or whole, the material is evocative of warmth and its swells and recessions effectively call out to the water. Not a minor undertaking, but neither should it be.

Seven Rivers of Fire on Facebook

Seven Rivers of Fire on Bandcamp

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Cult Burial, Oblivion EP

What to call it? Wrench metal, because it feels like it’s systemically pulling you apart? Cement metal because of all that crushing? Post-death metal because all that sludge and doom mixed in sure sounds like decay and that’s what comes after? I don’t know. None of my names for anything ever stick anyway — the tragedy of being irrelevant — but London extremity-purveyors Cult Burial offer three-tracks of doom-laced death in Oblivion, with the short outing following-up on their well-received 2020 self-titled debut in an impressively seamless melding of genres, technical leads searing through lumbering riffs, harsh vocals, various barks and screams, populating this dense and pummeling sampler from the nine-minute opening title-slab through “Parasite” and “Paralysed,” and I’d say they save the heaviest for last, but they hammer-smashed the scale to bits because who the hell cares anyway? All this and atmosphere too. Whatever big-timey metal label ends up snagging this band is gonna have a beast on their hands.

Cult Burial on Facebook

Cult Burial website

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Duster 69, 2021

German heavy rockers Duster 69 — or Duster69, if you prefer — seem to be testing the waters with their first release in 13 years. Called 2021, the two-songer brings just nine minutes of music in a kind of see-how-it-goes spirit. During their initial run, the outfit with Daredevil Records honcho Jochen Böllath (also of Grand Massive) on guitar released three full-length and splits alongside the likes of Calamus, Rickshaw, The Awesome Machine and House of Broken Promises, and though there’s something unassuming about thinking of “Oppose” and “Remember” as a comeback, it seems more about the band internally figuring out if they still work together as a unit. The answer, of course, is yes, or presumably 2021 wouldn’t see release. The production is rough, but if this is Duster 69 heralding a return in “soft opening” fashion, then something grand may yet be to come.

Duster 69 on Facebook

Daredevil Records website

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Tankograd, Klęska

With Tomasz “Herr Feldgrau” Walczak, now also drumming in Weedpecker on vocals and guitar, Warsaw’s Tankograd present a Soviet-aftermath through a meld of styles that pulls together heavy rock, sludge, death and black metal. Second album Klęska is as likely to find Walczak — joined by drummer Jakub “Herr Stoß” Kaźmierski, guitarist Grzegorz “Herr Berg” Góra and bassist Herr “I Can’t Find His Real Name” Schnitt — harmonizing as engaging guttural growls over blastbeats, nodding riffs, and so on. “Niech Liczą Trupy” seems to willfully take on Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride, but this is only after “Za Ofiarną Służbę” and “Nie Dać Się Zarżnąć” have blown genre convention out of the water. Tankograd continue in this fashion through the blues-into-blasts “Hańba” and the mostly-more-doomed “SLAM,” with “Nostalgia” closing out in a manner one can only call progressive for its clearsighted execution of vision. Bonus track “Polska” is anthemic and to translate the lyrics is a lesson in perspective waiting to happen. I’ve heard 70 albums for this Quarterly Review, and plenty of them have mixed styles. I haven’t heard anything else like this in that process.

Tankograd on Facebook

Piranha Music on Bandcamp

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Mother Iron Horse, Under the Blood Moon

Something something Salem, Massachusetts, something something witches. Fine. Cheers to Mother Iron Horse, who indeed hail from that storied Halloween tourist destination, on having more in common sound-wise with Doomriders than any tryhard-pagan retro-style novelty acts, and on not pretending to worship the devil despite the theme they’re working with throughout this sophomore LP and Ripple Music debut, Under the Blood Moon. A 37-minute, vinyl-ready-but-is-vinyl-ready-for-it affair that moves between sludge and uptempo heavy rock, there’s little pretense to be found across the eight tracks, even as side B moves through the title-track and into the chuggery of “Samhain Dawn” and the atmospheric-but-for-all-that-screaming-oh-wait-that’s-atmosphere-too “Samhain Night” before the rolling capper “Mass at Dungeon Rock” puts the nail in the proverbial coffin. Cult-themed riffy post-hardcore sludge, anyone? Yeah, probably. Can’t imagine there isn’t a market out there for “Old Man Satan.”

Mother Iron Horse on Facebook

Ripple Music website

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Ouzo Bazooka, Dalya

You know that episode of Star Trek where Captain Kirk & Co. end up carting around this bunch of troublemaking space hippies? And they play songs like “Hey brother let’s get together and have some fun?” Of course you do. One of them was Chekhov’s ex-girlfriend from Starfleet Academy. Anyway, if you’re ever out warping from planet to planet wherever and you encounter space hippies and the songs they play don’t sound like Tel Aviv’s Ouzo Bazooka, you should drop their asses at the nearest starbase. Across the six songs and 34 minutes of Dalya, the Freak Valley veterans plant a garden of cosmic weirdness that’s as much retro spacefunk as it is Middle Eastern psychedelic jam rock, and I don’t care what decade you want to trace it to, if “Kruv” isn’t the sound of the 2260s happening right fucking now, then the future is going to be no less a disappointment than the present. Krautrock would’ve been better off if this is what it had become, and yes, I mean that.

Ouzo Bazooka on Facebook

Stolen Body Records website

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Pilot Voyager, Roadtrip to Fantazery

Those who’ve engaged with The Obelisk’s Quarterly Review at some point in the last seven-plus years that I’ve been doing them might understand that when it comes to finishing out, I like to do myself a favor and close with something awesome. Thus it is that the last record here is Pilot Voyager‘s Roadtrip to Fantazery, with four extended heavy psychedelic jams recorded by the Hungarian outfit in July at the Fantazery festival in Ukraine. It’s a full-on spacey blowout, with the trio of guitarist Ákos Karancz, bassist Ádám Kalamár and drummer Anton Ostrometskiy pushing interstellar vibes along an uptempo course charted by the likes of Earthless or Slift on “Dog Bitten Blues” (10:20) before “Dark Flood” (14:55) slows down and gets really vibed out. “Polite Screams and Electrolytes Between Me, Myself and My Pickups” (13:37) evens things out a bit, contrary to what its title might lead you to believe, and offers a highlight bassline late, and “Rare Wolfs of Yasinya” (13:29) builds to something of an apex before letting go, but the truth is if you’re not on board from the outset with Pilot Voyager‘s roadtrip — emphasis on ‘trip’ — it’s only going to be your loss. One way or the other, they’re gone.

Pilot Voyager on Facebook

Psychedelic Source Records on Bandcamp

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If you’re not from Massachusetts or you’ve never lived there, you probably don’t know the difference between the North Shore and the South Shore. Well. As somebody who lived on the South Shore for nearly seven years, let me tell you, there’s a difference. You go north of Boston, it’s pretty nice up there. Salem — where Mother Iron Horse are from — is a cool town, and there’s some old-money-style New Englandy stuff to look at. South Shore? Yeah, it’s pretty much just whatever’s off the highway en route to Cape Cod.

So hey, congrats to North Shore denizens Mother Iron Horse on getting picked up for Blasko‘s curated series through Ripple Music. I saw this band one time, and they were pretty cool. Their first record came out through Electric Valley in 2019, and they’ll have their second, Under the Blood Moon out sometime later in 2021.

They join a swath of recent Ripple signees and keep the company of Holy Death Trio, Hail the Void and The Crooked Whispers in Blasko’s curated series. Dude would seem to have a particular affection for three-word bands. Either way, can’t argue with any of the picks at this point.

From the PR wire:

Salem occult sludge merchants MOTHER IRON HORSE sign to Ripple Music as part of special series curated by Blasko; watch “Old Man Satan” video now!

Ripple Music announces the signing of Salem, Massachusetts sleazy sludge rock cultists MOTHER IRON HORSE, for the release of their sophomore album “Under The Blood Moon” later this year. This comes as the fourth signing as part of Blasko’s special series on the Californian powerhouse.

Says the band: “Joining the Ripple family with some of the genres top artists is something we’re still wrapping our heads around! Working with Blasko and Ripple on our sophomore record has been an absolute honor and it’s pushed us to create our best work yet. We’re humbled and truly thankful for this opportunity. We look forward to hitting the road in both the US and abroad to celebrate this new partnership. With Blasko and Ripple backing us up, we truly feel unstoppable! Cheers!”

With a sound steeped in occult debauchery and esoteric rituals, MOTHER IRON HORSE stands out from the stoner rock pack by adding some sleazy grit and tongue-in-cheek blasphemy into the mix and adding a corrosive sludge punk twist that makes it all sound incredibly rousing and addictive. With years worth of touring canceled due to the pandemic, MOTHER IRON HORSE set out to create a fun video for their new single “Old Man Satan”, which will appear on their sophomore album and Ripple Music debut “Under The Blood Moon”.

MOTHER IRON HORSE was formed in 2018 by North Shore natives Adam Luca, Marco Medina, and Chris Kobialka. Shortly after forming, they found an old mill and began building their own recording studio, leading to the release of a 2-song demo on Halloween of 2018 (Hellmouth Records). Shortly afterward, the band was approached by Italy-based label Electric Valley Records, who released their debut album ‘The Lesser Key’ worldwide on May 17th, 2019. In support of the album, the band left for their first tour alongside Dutchguts up and down the American East Coast and throughout the Southern states in June 2019. After a summer of festivals and weekend shows, they hit the road again in September- with longtime friends and fellow Massachusetts natives Leather Lung. They played regionally throughout the rest of the year and appeared on the Boston-based TV show Heavy Leather Topless Dance Party.

2020 was shaping up to be their biggest year yet with a national tour booked around their appearance at Psycho SmokeOut in Los Angeles, followed by another summer of festivals leading up to a European tour in the fall. Unfortunately, the pandemic hit. Not one to waste time, MOTHER IRON HORSE began writing their second album ‘Under The Blood Moon’. The album’s debut single and video for “Old Man Satan” made an impression within the underground heavy scene and caught the attention of Blasko, who signed the band to Ripple Music for a 2021 release as part of his own curated series on the label.

https://www.facebook.com/MotherIronHorse
https://www.instagram.com/mother_iron_horse/
https://motherironhorse.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/theripplemusic/
https://www.instagram.com/ripplemusic/
https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/
http://www.ripple-music.com/

Mother Iron Horse, “Old Man Satan” official video